Being Church--First Thoughts

There's currently a lot of conversation in the blogosphere about what it means to be church. This week at Elm Street, we have been engaging in some live conversation about being church together, and about being church into the future.

Earlier today, as I checked my email, I received links to the following blog posts by Dan Dick. After some time reflecting on them, I want to offer them to you.

The first post should sound fairly familiar to anyone who has been a part of our conversations at Elm Street--Church Without Churches. Much as we have done this week, Dan Dick opens a thought experiment about what might happen if tomorrow, every United Methodist congregation found itself without a building. Dan informs his readers that "Approximately 60% of our current membership defines church as attending worship on Sunday morning. “Going to church” describes the fundamental experience for the majority of United Methodists — especially inactives."

How do you primarily define "church?" Is it more about "Going to..." or "Being..." church for you? I'd encourage you to read Dan's blog post and spend some more time thinking about these questions--his insights are powerful and insightful!

The second post I recieved hit home as well. In Irresponsibly Unresponsive, Dan asks us to answer the question "What responsibility does the individual have for her or his own spiritual growth and development?" In it, Dan talks about people who leave United Methodist congregations and their stated reasons, while raising questions about our personal responsibility for Christian discipleship and development. One of my favorite parts of this post is the following:

The majority of people attend church hoping to receive something, but very few express any responsibility to bring anything to worship. (In fact, the question was confusing to many people. We asked two questions: “How do you prepare yourself for worship?” and “What are your regular practices to grow spiritually?” In both cases, “what do you mean?” and “Nothing/None” are the top answers.)

I'd really love for you all to check out Dan's post--I don't want to give too much away, but I can't resist offering the following thoughts for you:

One interesting reaction from 4-out-of-every-5 people who left the church was a sense of indignation, and often outrage, that “the church” would expect anything from them. Various people expressed resentment that they were instructed to pray, read the Bible, regularly attend church, give money, give time, or support congregational projects. The overwhelming opinion is that all these things should be up to the individual.

Again, these thoughts make me want to ask, how do you primarily define "church?" Is it more about "Going to..." or "Being..." church for you?

I'm currently in the midst of a sermon series on "Being Church" that will continue until Christ the King Sunday (the last one before Advent). For those of you who will not hear those live, but who would like to know more, you can listen to the Elm Street UMC Podcasts

His Eye Is On the Sparrow

Just a quick note from the School of Congregational Development in Orlando... As the jazz band plays His Eye Is On the Sparrow, along with a smooth vocal, I'm reminded of the passion we need to find for Jesus in our worship--and the willingness to worship WELL.

Thoughts on Worship this Easter Season

I've been thinking hard about worship as we have entered this Easter season. I spend a lot of time thinking about worship for each Sunday we are together, but I've been thinking a bit more out-of-the-box, or beyond-the-bulletin lately. What does it mean to be worshippers of the Risen Christ? How do we worship as Christians in a 21st centuray world? What does our United Methodist heritage and the Christian tradition have to tell us about worship, praise, prayer, and Christian community as we gather to celebrate Jesus' Resurrection?

These are heavy questions! I don't have all the answers for our context today, but I do know that what we think is "proper worship," or "the way things have always been," aren't quite so set in stone. I do know that if we have met the risen Jesus, our lives shouldn't be like they used to be. I also know that to worship him means we need to be open to the presence of Christ in our lives, and in our church, and that if the Lord is present, we cannot be in complete control. A traditional way to open worship in Black Methodism is to sing "The Lord is in His Holy Temple, Let all the Earth Keep Silence Before Him." I want to propose, if we think of our lives and our places of worship as The Lord's Holy Temple, and if we believe the Lord is in the house with us, we might find ourselves keeping silence like our brothers and sisters at Green Memorial AME-Zion on Munjoy Hill, where the silence quickly moves to singing, dancing, shouting and praise!

I love old hymns, and I believe that many of the old ways still have power to lead worship well today, but I'm convinced that to be authentic worshippers of the Risen Christ in the 21st century, we need to find ways of communicating the Gospel that are indigenous to the communities around us. For some, that might mean praise music, for others Southern Gospel, for yet others, traditional hymns might work. Whatever music, method, and means we use to communicate with our communities, our worship needs to be truly Spirit-filled. Again, if we really believe the Lord is in the house, if we let the Spirit take the lead, we cannot expect to remain in complete control!

Our United Methodist history has a great deal to teach us about the variety of forms authentic worship can take. Methodists have never worshipped in only one way, and many of those ways might look strange to us today. John and Charles Wesley were high-church Anglicans: They were deeply Sacramental and by all accounts comfortable with formality, vestments, and the kinds of reverence and propriety demanded by 18th century Anglican worship. The Wesley's were also more concerned with helping the people of their society meet Jesus than with preserving worship the way they understand it, and when they found preaching in parish churches a challenge, took to other locations, lining songs without instruments, praying in the Spirit in the moment, and calling for people to give their lives to Christ right where they were. In prayer meetings and some of the early Methodist chapels, some folks found themselves so overcome by the Holy Spirit that they shouted, wept, cried out for God's mercy, fell to their knees and faces, and even shouted with joy, all with little respect for proper order and deference! When the Lord is in His Holy Temple, when the Lord is in the house, there's no telling what might happen!

Over our history, Methodists have sometimes followed John Wesley's admonition to Constant Communion, celebrating at least every Sunday, and often have followed formal orders of worship, with scheduled prayer, singing and silence; we have also followed the Wesley's example, chartering Camp Meetings, Revivals, and other kinds of services, where prayers flow unscheduled, preaching often becomes empassioned, and singing and shouting both in joy and conviction cannot easily be controlled; today, United Methodists worship in more languages and styles than ever before, but at our best, we are always open to the Lord's leadership as we worship together.

I point out our diverse heritage and current practices to suggest that there isn't one right way to worship, but I do want to make two points: there is one thing that all right worship has in common, and there is one thing which we should never let happen to worship. The one thing all right worship has in common is an openness to the work and power of the Holy Spirit, making what we do passionate, exciting, electric, and live! Like all living things, Spirit-driven worship is at least a little unpredictable and open to adapting to its immediate circumstances. The one thing that we should never let happen to our worship is to let it become a dead, dry activity that we try to do without the power of the Holy Spirit. If we are to worship the Living God who made Heaven and Earth, who in Christ lived, died, and rose for us, then we cannot do it without the Holy Spirit, the presence of God with us!

Yes, worship of the Risen Christ is a risky business--but the Church of Jesus Christ is called to take risks in his name, including in our worship! So if the Spirit moves you this Easter season, shout "AMEN!" or "HALLELUJAH!" like those Methodists of old! Raise your hands in the air, in praise or prayer! If the time is right, shout and praise the Lord in the Sanctuary! Dance, shout, jump, and have JOY in the Holy Spirit, like King David and all God's holy people across time!

The Lord IS in His Holy Temple, Let All the Earth Keep Silence Before Him, and Let the Church of Christ praise as the Spirit leads us!

The Day after Charge Conference

Yesterday, several members of Buxton UMC participated in our joint Charge Conference at Elm Street UMC in South Portland. We shared food, elected officers for the church for the year to come, and spent time in worship and learning together.

Our District Superintendents led us in worship in the Taize tradition--including chant, times of silence, and a significant time of prayer. While this style of worship was new to many, it seemed to resonate with at least a few in the crowd.

Afterward, Jan and Mike shared with us a time of learning: "Giving is NOT a 4 letter-word!" Ask around--it was funny, biblical, honest, open, and addresses many of the concerns about giving that I've heard at Buxton and in other places.

I want to be open about this as well--I'm a bit concerned about Buxton UMC these days. Several of our leading members have had serious health concerns recently, and the shift to 8:30am has been more than difficult. In all of this, attendance has slipped, and giving is down from this time a year ago. Also, we are behind in our Mission Shares, through which we parcipate in the ministries of the global United Methodist connection.

Members and friends of Buxton UMC, we need your help! We need to redouble our efforts to make Discipes of Jesus Christ in our community! We need to remember that tithing and giving to the church is our priveledged way to give thanks for what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

I continue to keep all of you in prayer, and hope you are keeping one another in prayer as well, as we continue in ministry together.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor David

Back from Leave...

Well,

I'm back from Paternity Leave, and glad to be getting back into a routine with the folks at Elm Street and Buxton! We're now just weeks away from the revival at Beechridge Speedway, October 6, 2007! Noon to 6:00pm we'll be having a wonderful day of fun, fellowship, prayer, praise and evangelism down at the track!

For all of you folks, the Mass Choir from our churches, the Messengers of Hope, Salinity, Beyond Blue, and of course, Bishop Weaver should make the day more than worth your time!

See you at the track!

Multiplication: God’s Amazing Method for Church Growth!

Joshua 5:9-12 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Luke 5:1-11

Kate and David Nicol
Fourth Sunday of Lent: Year C

“…from now on you will fish for people,” Jesus said, “So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.” What Jesus did that day along the shores of Lake Gennesaret has a great deal to teach us about church growth. Yes, I said Church Growth this time—We’re on to another Natural Church Development sermon, but today, we’re tackling Multiplication: God’s Amazing Method for Church Growth.

Much of NCD is about Church Health, but this growth force is about Church Growth—healthy church growth, but church growth nonetheless. Harnessing the power of All-By-Itself-Growth in Multiplication isn’t always easy…but usually, that’s because we fail to understand what God is calling us to do! So what is God calling us to do? God is calling us to multiply rather than add; God is calling us to accept the natural life cycle of things when necessary; God is calling us to remember that the true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another apple tree! Multiplication works within nature, much like it ought to operate in the Church. Trees, like any other plants, produce fruit not for the sake of fruit, but to carry the seeds of more trees. In nature, that is what multiplication looks like.

What is God’s form of growth? How does multiplication work in the life of the church? The first thing we need to recognize is that our standards aren’t the same as what we learned in school. When it comes to mathematics, the opposite of multiplication is division—but when we think about the natural processes at work in the church and the plant and animal world, the opposite of multiplication is addition—in fact, division is often a key part of multiplication!

We aren’t called to add to our numbers, but instead, to reproduce ourselves—disciples making disciples, leaders making leaders, and churches making churches… This concept is radically different from the way we think things ought to operate. In most committee meetings, or discussions about Church life we talk about adding to our numbers. But we never really talk about multiplication. Instead, we want to see what we have enlarged, with no end in sight. We worry about where to find another committee member to do some of the work. We obsess over finding a couple more pledgers to make up the gap in our budget. We don’t usually think about making more of ourselves, more disciples, more Christians, who will continuously make more disciples, so that these petty, addition problems won’t really be problems…In essence, it’s all about reproduction. That’s what the early church was like. Jesus called the disciples, who themselves called disciples, and whose disciples even called disciples! In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21, Paul reminds the Corinthian church about their real purpose—the ministry of reconciliation, “We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” And so we too “…implore…on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Multiplication today should still look like it did in the early Church. Just like the disciples at Pentecost, and the believers in Corinth, we too have been entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation. As Disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to be ambassadors to a hurting, broken world, offering them new and full life in Christ!

If we are to produce more life for the Kingdom of God, we need to understand the kind of fruit we are called to produce—and this is probably the place where we get it wrong as good church folks most often. The true fruit of an apple tree is not an apple, but another apple tree. So it follows, the true fruit of a leader isn’t a follower, but a leader; the true fruit of a disciple isn’t a seeker, but a disciple; the true fruit of an evangelist isn’t converts, but more evangelists; the true fruit of a small group isn’t more active and committed Christians, but more small groups that can help active and committed Christians reproduce themselves! It also follows, in what might be the most difficult leap NCD will ask any of us to make, that the true fruit of a church isn’t believers, but churches!

Multiplication sounds like a “happy” growth force… But, just as in the natural world, death is a natural part of the process for churches. There is a natural limit to everything, from plant life, to human life, to Church life. What we often fail to see is that when we have been faithful, when we have multiplied our numbers by making more disciples and starting more Churches, it is not about keeping the doors of one single Church open, it is about whether or not we can continue to advance the Kingdom of God where we are. Now that does not mean it is time to close the doors here. It does mean that God has called us to do something other than what we are doing. God is calling us to apply the growth forces in order to produce all-by-itself-growth. We are not just being called to produce more Church people here. We are being called to produce more life for the Kingdom.

“…From now on you will fish for people…” What Jesus did that day along the shores of Lake Gennesaret has a great deal to teach us about church growth. As disciples our job is never done. As disciples, we are called to make disciples who make disciples, so that we don’t fish to add to our project, our ministry, our small group or even our church—we fish to contribute to the growth of God’s Kingdom! God promised us new life in Christ, new life for us that we can share with others! To advance the Kingdom of God we must let go of what we want, and how we want it, and trust that God fulfills promises. God promised that if we shared the love of Christ, we would be transformed and would transform the world around us! Disciples make disciples, and churches plant churches, and leaders make leaders! We are called to fish for people, to be ambassadors for Christ, releasing the power of Multiplication by reproducing ourselves through the ministry of reconciliation. This is the call of all Christians, to make more of ourselves, for the sake of Christ, whose Body we are!

Sustainability: Roses and Kumquat

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Philippians 3:17-4:1

(This sermon was a joint effort by Kate Nicol at Clark Memorial UMC, and David Nicol at Buxton and Elm Street UMCs)

There’s a significant difference between Roses and Kumquat. Roses are sweet smelling, and kumquats are a small, oval citrus from East Asia. While both roses and kumquats are often edible, and both have thorny stems, there is a major difference—Roses are flowers, beautiful, but not self-reproducing as such; kumquats are seed-bearing fruit.

Most folks cultivate rose-bushes for their beautiful flowers, but most folks cultivate kumquat bushes for the fruit. Roses are beautiful, but require constant maintenance and outside energy to maintain; kumquats are often cultivated like other citrus, but within each and every kumquat are seeds…seeds that can, and given the right environment, will grow, producing more kumquats!

Fruit produces seeds, and seeds produce fruit in a continually self-reproducing cycle. If we are to unleash the power of all by itself growth we need to produce sustainable ministries. Sustainable ministries are ministries that produce fruit not flowers. Flowers like the Roses need outside care, but once they die there is nothing left. Fruit contains the source of its own reproduction the seeds. When we look at the ministries of our Church we must ask ourselves: Does this ministry produce Kumquats or Roses, Fruit or Flowers? If all a ministry produces are flowers it’s time to change what we’re doing, or abandon it all together, because that ministry is life draining, and not life sustaining.

When we develop ministries, we need to be sure they produce fruit, not just flowers. According to Natural Church Development theory, we need to do three main things to assess whether our ministries are bearing fruit. First, we need to check every fruit for seeds. Second, we need to use every opportunity to train others. Third, leaders need to remember not to solve people’s problems, but to help people solve their problems on their own… All of these are vital to sustainable ministry!

Christian Schwarz, the theological mind behind Natural Church Development has this to say about checking fruit for seeds: “The less you follow the natural dynamics [of Natural Church Development], the greater the likelihood that the ‘fruit’ that you produce won’t have any bearing on the maintenance of your ministry. You might produce wonderful flowers, but when they begin to wilt you will be unable to find seeds in them.”1 In Churches we to often spend time pushing to sustain ministries that are life draining. Sometimes this happens because we are stuck in a rut and we cannot find our way out. Talking about doing something new is scary, it might not produce the results we have come to expect. This type of thinking most often occurs around fundraisers. We would rather go with the tried and true, rather than seek out new ways to create life sustaining ministries that produce all by itself growth, rather then life draining, but institutional maintaining ministries that provide more comfort then anything else.

Along with checking every fruit for seeds, we need to become adept at using every opportunity to train others. When the church is healthy, and functioning as it should, disciples beget disciples, teachers beget leaders, financial whizzes beget financial whizzes, leaders beget leaders, and so on. Training leaders by inviting people into leadership seems almost radical, especially when we take a close look at how we operate as a church. Only those who are willing to sacrifice life and limb, and the possibility of being expected to do everything are brave enough to volunteer, and only those who do it as it has always been done are really let into the inner power structure. But that is not the way God intended us to operate!

It is no wonder that few of us are as bold as the Apostle Paul to encourage others to follow our example! But, that is what God calls us to do. We are called to set an example in by how we live within the church, and in our personal lives. Our citizenship is in heaven. It is not of this world, let alone this country. If we have come to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the world’s redeemer, our lives are to be examples of what God can do when we cease resisting His love and grace. When this happens we become better disciple-makers. We make disciples by living as disciples, and we make leaders within the church by inviting people into leadership, asking them to share leadership with us, and so producing fruit that contains the seeds that will make for more fruit!

Paul also gives us an example of how “not to solve other people’s problems.” Paul could easily have given the church in Philippi detailed instructions on how to live as Christians. Instead, he did something radical. In Philippians 3:17, Paul writes, “Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your yes on those who live as we do.” Paul set up a system that was both sustainable and natural! Disciple-making didn’t happen by sending people to a disciple training course, but in everyday life. Leader-making didn’t happen by sending folks to seminary or lay-speaking classes (as good as those things are), but by earning how to follow the example of other leaders!

We, in this place, are called to follow the example of Christ, and the example of those Christians who have gone before us, just as Paul called the church in Philippi to do! We are called to live lives so transformed by the Spirit that others want to know what makes the difference in our lives. We are called to empower others to join us in our ministries, showing them how to be teachers, trustees, shut-in visitors, peacemakers, caretakers, nursery workers, leaders…disciples of Jesus Christ! We are called to bear fruit that contains seeds that will produce more fruit! We are called to be kumquats and not roses, and to produce fruit with seeds, and not just flowers that wither! Will the kumquats please stand up?

1 Christian Schwarz, Color Your World with Natural Church Development: Experiencing all that God has designed you to be (St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 2005), 98.